diy wednesdays: catch-all shelf

there’s nothing better than emptying your pockets as soon as you get home after a long day, but we find that we leave little piles of change, keys, and bills all over the house unless we have a designated place to put them. this ubiquitous wooden magazine holder from ikea turned out to be the perfect catch-all shelf for our stuff, and all we had to do was put a coat of stain on it, turn it on its side and mount it in the corner of our entryway. problem solved! CLICK HERE for the full project and instructions or just click “read more” below.

1. paint, stain or decoupage your magazine holder (or leave it plain)
2. pre-drill two holes for the screws and mark your wall where the screws will go, making sure they are level.
3. mount your box to the wall, using washers so the screw heads don’t sink too far into the wood.
4. if you’ve got an outlet nearby, you can even charge your cell phone or ipod by snaking the cord through the hole in the front of the box.

WAY cool. To be honest, the asymmetry would probably bother me, only because it’s such a recognizable object (at least for me, my dad has like 20 billion of these) BUT it’s a great idea for someone who doesn’t have the hangups I do, OR to apply to another similar object.

Often, the simplest solutions bring the most satisfaction! I love your “think outside of the box” adaptation of this ready-made, yet appealing object.

For our catch-all, we use a hefty, square woven basket, repurposed from a foodie gift basket we received as a wedding gift. Since we’re a bit “hoard-y”, I want to install one of these as well! Just need to find a corner…

I LOVE THIS! i want to paint them bright colors and place them throughout the house–also, stack a few in an unused corner. this is the very best kind of art project–tremendously useful, utterly handsome, and it inspires all kinds of uses and variations. thank you so much for sharing so many great ideas and designs with us. maybe we can all send you photos of our completed versions of your great idea.

This is fantastic! I actually have several of these at home, used far less creatively. For anyone who doesn’t live near an IKEA – you can go on line http://www.IKEA-USA.com to find your item and you can shop by phone (800) 434-4532.

GREAT IDEA! I like the idea of doing a vertical row of maybe 4 or 5, one for each day of the week (?) ….homework….etc, and maybe color coding them……..but, for the person who asked about mounting to a damaged wall in an apartment, one idea may be to mount a series of these or even one of these to a large peice or two of pegboard , because you can use the peg board to possibly hide those damage spots, distract with some other color if you want and accent with some additional hooks, etc….for keys..??? just brainsorming….

I didn’t realize what it was at first. It looked like a built in wooden TV stand (one usually in bedrooms high in the corners, before flat screens) that was turned into a desk. Seeing this, we have an old built-in stand from another house that never worker in our new homes. May may it into as desk for one of the kids.

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